27May2015 Pre-Market Commentary: Futures Up Fractionally Along With The U.S. Dollar, Market Weakness Prevails

Written by Gary

After yesterday’s welcome pullback, WTI oil has fallen off its morning hig and the U.S. dollar continues to climb after a quick pit stop. News on Greece is scares, but the old path of somehow scraping through will be the end result.

Markets expected to open higher, but may continue the decent from yesterday.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money
	European markets are higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 0.78% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.61% and Germany’s DAX is up 0.17%.

What Is Moving the Markets

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Beijing’s Yuan Push Bears Fruit The yuan is now the region’s leading currency for doing business with China, trumping the Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar.
	G7 finance chiefs ponder flagging growth, Greek risk DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) – Little more than a gentlemen’s club in recent years, G7 finance ministers and central bankers have their work cut out this week to revive stuttering global growth and defuse tensions over China’s growing economic clout.
	Ahead of G7, U.S. warns Europe not to miscalculate over Greece LONDON (Reuters) – The United States urged European negotiators not to miscalculate as they try to negotiate a debt deal with Greece’s cash-strapped government, because the cost of a Greek exit from the euro zone was impossible to predict exactly.
	Hanergy Chairman Bought Shares Moments Before Plunge Moments before the stock of a Chinese solar firm plummeted 47% last week, the company’s biggest shareholder was adding to his holdings.
	Tiffany’s results beat as sales in Europe, Americas rise (Reuters) – Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales, helped by strong demand for its Tiffany T line and higher sales in the Americas and Europe.
	Michael Kors posts slowest revenue growth since going public (Reuters) – Michael Kors Holdings Ltd reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public in December 2011 as demand for its handbags and accessories weakened in North America.
	Dollar has quick pitstop, then motors to new highs LONDON (Reuters) – Financial market trading revolved around the U.S. dollar on Wednesday with European shares rallying on the back of a weak euro and U.S. shares and commodities struggling.
	Investor Bill Gross: Bet against Bunds ‘well timed, not well executed’ (Reuters) – Bill Gross, the widely followed investor, admitted in his June Investment Outlook on Wednesday that his bet against the German Bund market was well timed but not profitable.
	Toshiba Could Shine Once Mess Is Cleared Toshiba’s accounting issues could be the setback the company needs to clean up its broader portfolio of businesses.
	European Bad Loan Tide Going Out Slowly For many European lenders, things have finally stopped going from bad to worse. Further improvement in some markets, however, will be slow going.
	With Greece “Nowhere Close” To Deal, Depositors Pull 300 Million From Banks In Single Day On Tuesday, Greece postponed a scheduled Eurogroup meeting in Brussels without offering a reason as officials conducted “preparatory” discussions and held an evening teleconference with creditors. Face-to-face meetings will take place today with just 9 days to go until June 5 when Athens will miss a payment to the IMF, triggering an unprecedented default the repercussions of which no one can accurately predict. Also on Tuesday, Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis allegedly told Greek reporters that one measure under consideration to help stem the outflow of deposits from Greek banks was a levy on ATM withdrawals designed to encourage the use of credit cards over cash, a rather ironic suggestion coming from a government crippled by debt. The Finance Ministry was quick to deny that such a levy was being considered because after all, one way to ensure that ATM lines will get quite a bit longer is to suggest that depositors will soon be subject to a levy on withdrawals. Unfortunately, it appears as though the move to dispel the ATM tax “rumor” came too late because according to Kathimerini, deposit flight accelerated meaningfully on Tuesday. Here’s more: Statements suggesting the imposition of capital control measures over the upcoming long weekend, and Tuesday’s reference by the Finance Ministry to the possible imposition of a levy on cash machine withdrawals ‘later withdrawn’ sent many to the ATM. At the same time, bank officials point to widespread concerns about the possibility of a rift between Greece and its creditors over the government’s failure to rep …
	Futures edge higher after dollar rally subsides (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday as the dollar retreated from its largest gain in two years and as worries about Greece receded.
	Universal Studios Japan Plans Tokyo Listing The operator of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka is planning to list in Tokyo as early as September.
	Frontrunning: May 27 FIFA Raided by Swiss Authorities in 2018, 2022 World Cup Probe (BBG) Companies Send More Cash Back to Shareholders (WSJ) Time Warner Cable Deal Stirs Debt Concerns (WSJ) Qatar $200 Billion World Cup Under More Scrutiny Amid FIFA Probe (BBG) Philippine, Vietnamese troops play soccer and sing on disputed island (Reuters) The G-7’s Problem: Can the World Deal With a Greek Default? (BBG) SocGen Deal for Bache Illustrates Commodity-Trading Woe (WSJ) China’s Naval Abilities Test Asia’s Insecurities (WSJ) Blocked in China, Twitter still courts Chinese firms for ads (Reuters) Chicago’s Wall Street Reprieve Spurs Rally Before Junk-Bond Sale (
	‘Brexit’ would be bad for business: Lloyd’s of London CEO LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – A British referendum decision to leave the European Union would damage the country’s business prospects, Lloyd’s of London [LOL.UL] Chief Executive Inga Beale said in Luxembourg on Wednesday.
	No Clues From Gartman About Today’s Market Direction While Gartman’s immaculate accuracy at suggesting market directionality served everyone well yesterday, today the “opposite oracle” is cloudy, which may explain why thus far futures are broadly unchanged. To wit: SHARE PRICES HAVE FALLEN VERY SHARPLY IN THE PAST 24 HOURS, as eight markets of the ten comprising our International Index have fallen and as five of those eight have fallen by more than 1%. Our Index has lost 107 “points” or 0.9% and had it not been for strength once again in the market in mainland China our Index would have been down by more than 1%. We begin then by saying without equivocation that we have changed our mind again regarding equities, having chosen in the few hours after sending yesterday’s TGL that as the bond market began to strengthen and as the equity markets in Europe began very seriously to weakenâ€¦ weakening sufficiently enough yesterday for us to recommend exiting long positions established two weeks ago in the EUR STOXX 50 index for a small but important profitâ€¦and as the dollar shifted into very high gear to the upside, that something was changing in the psychology of the equity market that caused us to take action. Hence in our retirement funds here we reduced very slightly our long position in Apple directly and then wrote near-the-money calls against the remaining position. Further, we sold just out-of-the money calls against the “tanker” shares we owned, and we used the money taken in from those calls to buy more derivatives sufficient to take us back to market neutrality. This may have been an error on our part; time only shall tell, but for the moment that appears to have been the wise cours …
	Apple Set to Issue Yen-Denominated Bonds Apple Inc. will likely issue the company’s first yen-denominated bonds in June, in the latest of several moves to take advantage of rock-bottom interest rates in some non-U.S. markets.
	Brookfield Moves Ahead With $2 Billion Tower Brookfield Property Partners is plowing ahead with a giant $2 billion glass tower on New York City’s West Side.
	Goldman tops 2015 City of London bank bonus charts LONDON (Reuters) – Bankers at Goldman Sachs received the highest bonuses in London’s banking industry this year but bonuses paid out by the top 10 banks were down overall compared to last year, a survey published on Wednesday showed.
	Altice owner Drahi says wasn’t ready for Time Warner Cable buy PARIS (Reuters) – Patrick Drahi, the billionaire owner of European telecoms group Altice , said he put an end to talks to buy Time Warner Cable because his company was not ready, adding that he would not carry out reckless acquisitions.
	Bernanke sees no risk of hard landing in China, bullish on U.S. economy SEOUL (Reuters) – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that China’s economic slowdown should not worry markets as there was no risk of a hard landing, and emphasized that a move to raise U.S. rates should be viewed as a positive sign for the world’s largest economy.
	Sony mobile executive: pricing tweaks, cost cuts to cope with dollar’s rise TOKYO (Reuters) – The head of Sony Corp’s loss-making mobile telecoms unit plans to tweak handset prices and cut costs if need be to absorb the dollar’s sharp rise versus the yen, citing currency shifts as a bigger potential threat to the Japanese electronics maker’s efforts to turn the business around than competition.
	Skymark creditor Airbus opposes revival bid, threatens ANA stake deal TOKYO (Reuters) – Airbus Group may block an attempt by Japanese carrier ANA Holdings to become a key shareholder in Skymark Airlines , people familiar with the matter said, becoming the second major creditor in the failed discount airline to threaten ANA’s participation in a revival bid.
	Boutique Bohemian: High-End Hostels Come to America Investors are pouring money into upscale youth hostels, betting the next big market in hospitality will be the scruffy, cost-conscious backpacking crowd.